CV Building – AESN

How To Structure Your LinkedIn Profile

Sanjeev Ghimire — Fri, 25 Mar 2022 05:18:40 +0000

How To Structure Your LinkedIn Profile

LinkedIn is one of the powerful networking platforms of the modern century. It represents a person/student’s academic and professional history and experience. It need not be said that LinkedIn is a very important platform for job and employee hunting. But many people don’t seem to use the LinkedIn platform to the fullest to get their desired results. It is not that hard to set up a LinkedIn profile but it needs some work to establish a proper professional structure.

Now, we can move to the part where we structure a LinkedIn profile, actually a high-quality, recruiter impressing kind.

Professional Profile Picture
Concise but precise introduction and summary
Describing accomplishments both professional and personal
Building a community
Reachability

Professional Profile Picture

LinkedIn is essentially a business networking platform where people get connected from different walks of life. The first impression of a profile includes the profile picture. Hence, it shouldn’t be your last photo on a beach or a cool selfie. It should be a professional photo, essentially having qualities like having good quality, recently taken, and a business casual side of attire. The clothing aspect is dependent on the industry you are working in or the level of formality required.

Concise but precise introduction and summary

Suppose someone wants to connect to you, but they don’t get a clear idea about who you are and what you do, that can be a very bad first impression. So, going on the Edit Button section on profile; one can write their name, address, small bio, experience, and other things. This section of a LinkedIn profile is very important and some time and thoughts ought to be given. Your connection will then get to know you better.

Describing accomplishments both professional and personal

Now that you have set up your introduction and profile summary, this is the time for flaunting your achievements and education levels. This includes the university you’re going to / went to, your job history, your skills, and badges. For example: If you’re a sophomore student having some skills in note-taking apps such as Notion, you can write your education level as College Name/ Sophomore year and list Notion handling as a skill on the skills section.

Building a community

Now that we’ve built a profile, it is incomplete without connections with people. It can be with people you admire, people you’ve worked with/ are working with or people you aspire to work with. This part of the profile shows where you land in searches and how people perceive you like a profile. This is very subjective and there is not a fixed blueprint to what to follow.

Reachability

The final piece of the puzzle includes the online presence of your LinkedIn profile. One of the ways is to set a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile. Rather than some random gibberish, you can set your URL to www.linkedin.com/yourcoolname . It will surely help you embed your profile in your resume/ CV and look a tad bit professional.

[Also Read: What To Include In Your CV]

If I was to build a LinkedIn profile from scratch, I would consider the following factors:

Urgency: When does it need to get completed?
Persona: Who is it for? A student, professional employee? A retiree?
Purpose: What is the major goal? Get jobs, provide jobs, increase network size?

Now, I would follow these steps to create a LinkedIn profile from scratch.

List your accomplishments, skills, experience, education, and interests and compile them in a note-taking application/ paper

You can write all your information, essentially a bio-data in a document or just handwrite it. This step of building a profile heavily relies on your CV/ Resume where you have a basic idea of who you are and what you can do and have done. Also, adding other elements of your professional and personal experiences will enrich your LinkedIn profile.

Perform brainstorming on profile titles and introduction as to how people perceive us

You can talk with a friend, a mentor, professor, or a family member about how you appear as a person in finding strong points. Then, you can write it and make it as precise as possible on the profile.

Sign up to LinkedIn

You can then join LinkedIn using your email address. It is a very simple process and guides new users along the way to set up the profile. The instructions are in layman’s terms and are not time-consuming.

Set up the profile picture and profile information tiles

Then, you have to insert a professional picture of yourself on the profile. And add your details in the introduction and summary tiles. In this step, you have to be as clear-cut as possible. Mention details about who you are and which avenues you like.

Describe academic and other accomplishments

Now, write where you have studied, where you have worked and experience gained. This can give recruiters or employees have a clear idea on the head about what sector you’re involved in and how your connection can be valuable.

List your skills and achievements

Show your work and achievements. Mention that summer internship you did in 2019 or that Rotaract volunteering experience or that Photoshop course you completed.

Connect with people you find inspiring and uplifting

Now, explore people on LinkedIn and find people and organizations of your interest. Connect with them, cold text them, and learn about what it takes to reach and increase your network.

Do all of this process with a mentor or a friend

You can take the help of your mentor or even a friend who has already set up a LinkedIn page to show how things work around here. This will make the process less stressful and efficient. When there is someone, you can always rely on, you don’t find it hard to do mistakes. And the more mistakes you do, you can learn from them.

If you follow all the given steps, your profile will look professional and will also attract recruiters.

What to include in your CV or resume?

Sanjeev Ghimire — Mon, 26 Apr 2021 07:32:43 +0000

What is a CV?

A CV, which stands for Curriculum Vitae, is the most important document which you need when applying for a job. This document allows you to summarize your education, skills and experience, to enable to you sell your abilities to prospective employers. Normally, a lot of organizations ask for a “cover letter” alongside your CV.

It does not matter how qualified you are for a position or if you have experience – if your CV is poorly presented or written badly, you are going to have problems getting the job or even an interview.

How Long Should Your CV Be?

In the UK, the standard for a CV is two sides of a A4. That said, one size does not fit all the needs.

A recent graduate with minimal to no experience may only need one side of a A4. However, there are some who might need a three-page CV, especially for high-level roles or for people who have gained a lot of experience over the last five to ten years.

To save spaces, only include the most important points; such as your education and experience. Always stick to putting relevant information and not repeating stuffs that you have written in your cover letter.

If you are having trouble editing your CV, ask yourself if the information you read intrigues you. If not, then remove it. Also, if the information is not related to the position you are applying for, remove it and if you have stuffs that are more than five years old, summarize it.

Why Do We Need A CV/ Resume?

Your CV/Resume is a marketing tool. It introduces yourself to potential employers, lets them know about your qualifications and will help you in securing an interview.

Your resume is a marketing tool. It introduces yourself to employers, presents your qualifications, and helps to secure an interview. Your resume provides a summary of your experiences, abilities, skills, as well as your accomplishments.

[Also Read: What Recruiters Want To See In Your CV]

What Should You Include In Your CV?

Contact Information – You should include your full name, email address and mobile number and the state you are living in.
Profile – This is a statement which highlights your key qualities and helps you stand out. Normally, this is placed at the beginning of a CV and relevant achievements and skills along with your career aims are presented.
A good CV profile focuses on the sector you are applying to, while your cover letter will be job-specific.
Work Experience – List all of your work experience, in the reverse order. Make sure you only mention those that are related to the job you are applying for. You should include your job title, name of the company, time you were employed and key responsibilities. If you have a lot of experience, make sure you put this section before your education.
Education – Always list an date all of your previous educations (including the grade and major). Place your most recent one first.
Soft Skills – These are the interpersonal skills which characterizes a person and their ability to maintain relationships with others (like colleagues, friends, etc.) For examples skills like : Leadership, Teamwork, Communication Skills, Work Ethic, etc.

What You Should Not Put In Your CV/Resume

Now that you have read what you should have while building your CV, its time to read what stuffs you should never put in your CV. This stuffs will make recruiters/potential employers feel like you are not too serious.

A Photo: Having a photo of you opens you up to various lines of discrimination, whether it is intentional or not. Your appearance will not hamper your ability to do the job, so your photo should not be on your CV.
Your Address: When you list your address, it gives the hiring manager another reason to not consider you – your location. You do not want anyone to know where you live “exactly”. So just keep the state you are living in instead of your full address.
“References Available Upon Request”: Unless specifically requested, mentioning this statement is unnecessary. When an employers wants your references, they will ask for it; which will not happen until after the interview has taken place.
Unrelated Previous Jobs: You should always show your potential employer that you are interested in focusing on what is relevant to them by removing extra information from your CV.
DATES: Unless you are mentioning your work experience, it is better not mentioning any other dates, especially your DOB. This is because there is a chance you might be discriminated based on your age.
Typos or factual errors. You should spellcheck your resume before you send it, double-check everything that you have included in your resume.
Fancy formatting. Stick to easy-to-read fonts and formats. This makes it easier for recruiters to review your resume as having too much graphics in the CV can get distracting.

Reviewing your resume

Having someone else review your resume is extremely important. Make sure you use someone who will actually tell you if they think something isn’t right. People you could ask include:

Co-workers
Former employers
Teachers
Career guidance counselors
Your parents, family or guardians